If you’re serious about getting fit then the Wii’s sports games will get you partly there, but they’re no substitute for traditional exercise, according to a group of Canadian students. Duh.
The 28-strong band of testers from Dalhousie University in the East Coast city of Halifax, Nova Scotia each played the console’s Wii …

COMMENTS

Again?

I wish these kinds of surveys would stop now. Nobody's ever said that the Wii was a good substitute for proper exercise. All that's been said is that's it's much better than the traditional sitting-in-one-place-on-the-sofa style of gaming.

That's it. Anyone who thinks differently is pretty dumb and we don't need regular studies and surveys to prove the point. Want to lose weight or keep fit? Try real sports or the gym. Want a fun game that's better for you than sitting around watching TV? That's where the Wii comes in.

You're missing the point...

The issue here is not which form exercise is the best per session, but which is likely to succeed.

Sure, a few people may happily "work out to a boxing video for 30 minutes" for a couple of days, but unless you are the sort of person that naturally finds exercise fun (so you probably don't need to lose weight) that's about as far as you could be bothered to go.

If the alternative is an addictive game that only gives, say 75% of the exercise, but keeps you doing it week after week, which is better?

boxercise

Stop it!

Calm down, calm down

It's not like this was a sponsored study or anything. I could probably put money on the fact that, since it came out of a university, it was a student's project or group project with a report at the end. One of my projects was about how to design a robot that could explore Mars - made out of Lego. It didn't change the world but was aimed at developing the students ability to a) work as a team, b) learn generic skills at how to run a study.

Besides - a study like this allows us to use it in arguments with people who think the opposite as it's now been scientifically proven! And Paul, you do need studies to prove "the point" or any established fact. It's how we *know* that it's fact.

Re:What the hell?

Wii sports

The boxing title certainly *can* get your heart rate up into decent CV rates. Like any form of exercise, it's about the effort you put into it. You can use an ergometer for half an hour and not break a sweat, or you can push it and get some benefit.

Further Research Required

Re:Andy

It doesn't give you hairy palms; I've done the study. And it was official because I had my lab coat on at the time.

With losing weight in general, it comes to your intensity while doing the activity. If you're playing the Wii and moving around and using your entire body, its more likely that you are getting slightly fit then someone who sits on the couch waving their arm around.